Thursday, November 28, 2013

Once in 70,000 Years...

We are about to have a once in a more than 70,000 year event. The event is that the first day of Chanukah (Hanukkah) coincides with Thanksgiving.

It is so incredibly rare, that this will not happen again for thousands and thousands of years. No one know exactly how long, because none of our calendars are going up that high!In the world of computer calculations etc. that alone is pretty amazing!

This strange alignment is based on the quirks of our two different calendar systems...the Gregorian and the Jewish Calendars. Much of the world follows the Gregorian Calendar with its basis of a 365 day year based on Earth's orbit around the sun and our inserting a leap year every four years.

Little did Pope Gregory realize the implications of the calendar system honored by his name, when made implementations that kept Easter in line with the original celebration in the Spring. But the Jewish Calendar, which was created more than 2,000 years ago, follows the waxing and waning of the moon. That calendar has 12 months that average 30 days a piece resulting in 354 days in a year. As a result of this anomaly, the Jewish calendar speeds up in relativity to the Gregorian.

But since many Jewish holidays are tied to seasons, as well, it includes an extra month in seven out of every 19 years. And while this year is a leap year (celebrated in 2014) , Hanukkah and other holidays came earlier. And Thanksgiving, which falls on the fourth Thursday in November, happened to come extra late this year, allowing for the convergence. Because the extra month on the Jewish calendar will occur in 2014, Hanukkah (Chanukah) will once again happen in December of 2014.

Hence, this incredible rarity of a November Hanukkah coinciding with the usual November Thanksgiving.

Thinks of it...once in 70,000 years!

In any event, on any day,we give thanks.

Happy Hanukkah, Happy Thanksgiving. Celebrate with joy, with love and with blessings of gratitude.